Chapter 44

“The youngest, can I ask you one more question? Do you really play all those musical instruments?”

Surrendering to his mounting curiosity, Zhou Xiaotian asked again.

Zhu Benzheng and Sun Hao both halted their paces to gawk at Fang Qiu unblinkingly.

They were keen to hear the answer as well.

“Of course not. I’m not god, how can I play all kinds of musical instruments?”

Said Fang Qiu flatly.

“What?”

“You don’t?”

The three all went dumbfounded.

“If you don’t, why did you…”

“They how come you let Li Qingshi choose anyone as he liked?” Zhu Benzheng asked promptly.

“Yeah!”

Sun Hao and Zhou Xiaotian nodded frantically with interest.

“It’s a psychological tactic.”

Fang Qiu grimaced, and then explained, “I was imposing pressure on him. If he chose something I’ve learned, I shall play. As a result, he picked erhu, the one I do have learned.”

“What if he had picked something you haven’t learned?” Zhu Benzheng added immediately.

“If so, I will go over there and play every instrument that I’ve learned one by one until there are only those I can’t play. After playing a few different ones, I don’t think Li Qingshi will have the face to say more mean remarks. In either case, I won’t lose to him.”

Responded Fang Qiu quite relaxedly.

Hearing this, Zhu Benzheng, Sun Hao, and Zhou Xiaotian exchanged surprised looks in silence.

They never expected that Fang Qiu could do such calculation under that tense circumstance.

He did have considered everything.

“The youngest, you just made a clever deceiving move very smoothly. I didn’t realize you’re such a schemer until now!”

Sun Hao exclaimed, his eyes scanning Fang Qiu up and down as if he did not know Fang Qiu at all.

“I’m flattered.”

Fang Qiu cupped his hands to show his modesty.

“Well then, the youngest, which musical instruments can you play? Your plan has a flaw. What would you do if Li Qingshi was really shameless and asked you to play all of them?”

Asked Sun Hao, bending an arm around Fang Qiu’s shoulder.

At those words, Fang Qiu smiled mysteriously and said, “Take a guess.”

In fact, the reason why Fang Qiu learned so many musical instruments was simply that he was required to do so for his martial arts practice.

His old master did not intend to cultivate him into a talented man who excelled at all kinds of arts. Instead, he used the music teaching to nurture Fang Qiu’s perseverance.

Without perseverance, one’s mind was prone to be flighty.

Once the mind was flighty, it was hard to concentrate one’s Qi, making it difficult to master real martial arts.

Therefore, as long as he got a hang of one musical instrument, he would immediately switch to another one and start from scratch. Each time he learned a musical instrument, he also enhanced his perseverance.

He kept on learning many things other than playing musical instruments.

His old master would not allow him a minute to relax. According to the theory of his old master, only when a man powered through his limits could he wake up his potentials and make a breakthrough.

But as his martial arts skills got better, he found himself learning musical instruments faster and faster, even though it was really hard at the beginning.

He never thought he was especially talented in learning musical instruments. He was just forced to learn them.

The process was extremely tormenting, and even he sometimes wondered how he persevered through.

However, if it was not for such practice, he would not have been able to reach the Guru Realm at the age of fifteen.

Just as they headed back to their dormitory.

“President of the student union of School of Chinese Medicine got smacked in the face by a freshman!”

This news speedily spread across the entire campus and went viral on the BBS.

It went extremely popular.

Everyone one knew the president of the student union of the School of Chinese Medicine was Li Qingshi, a campus celebrity who got good marks, good looks, and a good brain.

However, such an outstanding figure got smacked in the face by a freshman.

It aroused their intense curiosity.

“What kind of guy is this freshman?”

“How did he smacked Li Qingshi in the face?”

Those who heard the news instantly logged in on the BBS to learn the whole incident.

Although someone posted an onsite video, it was shot in a place very distant from Fang Qiu and Li Qingshi, the center of attention. Adding that the environment was rather noisy, most people skipped it to read the text elaboration.

At the top was a post identified as “Hot”—Live Broadcast of Fang Qiu vs Li Qingshi, a freshman smacking the president of the student union of the School of Chinese Medicine in the face.

At the sight of the name Fang Qiu, they were all dazed, but soon something dawned on them.

“No wonder!”

“I’ve been thinking who on earth is so audacious to outperform that talented Li Qingshi. Turned out that it’s Fang Qiu, who showed extraordinary talents at yesterday’s Start-of-Term Ceremony!”

“How many times did Fang Qiu go viral on the BBS in this week?”

“Is this the third time or the fourth?”

“But we’re still in the first week of this new semester! Holy cow, you’re awesome!”

“Well, I remember this Fang Qiu is a student of the School of Chinese Medicine, am I right?”

“How come he took on the president of the student union of his own school?”

“Isn’t he worried that Li Qingshi might make things extra difficult for him in the days to come?”

With all kinds of doubts, they clicked open the post.

It was obvious that the post was edited with a smartphone, and it was truly a live broadcast, though the live broadcast was already over. The last updated time of the post was 10:30 a.m.

As the time records displayed, the post writer sent the first message at 10 a.m.

“Big news! Big news! Fang Qiu just appeared on the sports ground. Li Qingshi threatened to cast a brick to attract jade—using his singing show as a modest spur to induce Fang Qiu’s more valuable performance—his words sounded quite competitive…”

Then, a second one entered.

“Fang Qiu accepted the challenge. Good heavens, Fang Qiu is handsome!”

The third message.

“Li Qingshi is going to sing the song I want you, and he said he would present this song to a girl on the scene. Guess who is this girl?”

The fourth message.

“Li Qingshi’s singing is really beautiful. My ears are mesmerized!”

The fifth message.

“Fang Qiu is also singing I want you. He is clearly challenging Li Qingshi!”

…

Those messages were interrupted by some comments, but the comments were just a few. Apparently, this post did not catch much attention at first.

“Post writer, please update! Update!”

“With such a big event going on, I happened to not be on campus! How unlucky! Please update! How is Fang Qiu’s singing? I really want to listen to it!”

“I already took a seat and grabbed a handful of snacks, waiting for the battle to start!”

“I support Fang Qiu! But I think there is some bromance between the two!”

…

The sixth message.

“Before singing, Fang Qiu said a motto of Lu Xiangshan, something like ‘It’s the Six Classics that interpret me, not the reverse’. Who knows this remark? Why did I never hear of it? Fang Qiu said it was the same with singing—let the song sing you instead of you singing the song!”

This update was closely followed by the seventh message.

“Fang Qiu has started to sing!”

Then, no more updates came in.

One minute passed.

Two minutes ticked by.

Five minutes later, there was still no update.

The absence of updates sent those who had been waiting for more details in an uproar.

“Post writer, where are you? Quick, update!” “How on earth is Fang Qiu’s singing? I’m all ears now. Give me some description, any description will do!”

“Perhaps the post writer’s ears are too intoxicated to function?”

“The post writer is dead. You should contact him by burning paper money.”

…

Reading between the lines, viewers of this post could imagine how anxious those waiting for the updates were.

They gave a gloating laugh as they pictured the scene. “It’s much better to read the post now. I can get the answer right away without waiting for the updates.”

At the sixth minute, the post writer finally updated the post.

“Sorry, Fang Qiu’s singing is too beautiful. No! Beautiful is not enough to describe it. Anyway, words have slipped my mind when I attempt to describe what his singing felt like. All I can say is I want to listen to that song a hundred times in a row!”

Reading this, everyone got a fright.

“Jesus!”

“How good it was that it propelled the post writer to make such a positive comment.”

They were now regretting missing the live show of Fang Qiu’s singing. “How regretful!”

Then, a series of updates emerged in succession.

“Fang Qiu growled that whatever Li Qingshi had, just bring it on, he would take them all! It seems that Fang Qiu and Li Qingshi do have some conflicts. It explains why Fang Qiu waged a war against Li Qingshi the moment he arrived here.”

“Fang Qiu’s three roommates stepped forward, pointing their fingers at Li Qingshi! Well, here I want to roast my roommates a bit—all you do to me is eat my apples every day, but please take a look at those roommates, how loyal they are to their bro!”

“Fang Qiu’s roommates listed the sordid things Li Qingshi did to them. First, he took away Fang Qiu’s opportunity to sing the song Start-of-Term Gift with Jiang Miaoyu at the Start-of-Term Ceremony. Oh my, it turned out that this song should have been performed by Fang Qiu and Jiang Miaoyu. Second, he dumped trash into their dormitory and reported them to the student union, causing them to be criticized. Third, he tried to provoke Fang Qiu since he arrived here. Shoot! How deep the grudge between Li Qingshi and Fang Qiu is!”

“Of course, Li Qingshi denied all the charges!”

Now, the viewers started to understand the whole thing.

“There are actually so many things going on behind the scene.”

“The phrase ‘of course’ added before the sentence ‘Li Qingshi denied all the charges’ is quite subtle and accurate. Post writer, I show you my respect.”

“This phrase can mean that he believes his acts are all justified, but it can also mean he is feeling guilty.”

After reading the above updates, the viewers were still feeling for Fang Qiu. After all, no one would defy the president of the student union of his own school without a good reason.

“Li Qingshi proposed to have a competition on playing musical instruments, and Fang Qiu agreed.”

“Li Qingshi performed Oceans’ Roar with a Chinese flute.”

“Nice!”

…

The post writer continued reporting the event.

“When Li Qingshi finished, Fang Qiu allowed him to pick any musical instrument there—Chinese flute, guitar, bamboo flute, Chinese zither, erhu, violin, and cello. Fang Qiu is going against nature now! Everyone at the scene is shocked by this remark!”

At this, all the viewers gasped.

No one saw this coming.

“How domineering!”

But their subconscious told them it was impossible for Fang Qiu to learn so many musical instruments.

“Li Qingshi selected erhu.”

Now, they began to get worried for Fang Qiu.

“Fang Qiu did start playing erhu! He performed a song called Battle Steeds Galloping Ahead. He showed off various techniques in this song. Imitating all sorts of neighing and hoofbeats simply with an erhu. Bravo! Truly bravo!”

This update astounded the viewers. “Fang Qiu can really play erhu?”

“And he plays it well.”

“Now, Fang Qiu finished playing, the audience is giving him thunderous applause, but Li Qingshi does not look so cool.”

“Fang Qiu is hauling the microphone stand heading to the Chinese Folk Arts Association. Gosh! Guess what has happened?” “Fang Qiu picked up the Chinese flute and started playing. The song he is performing is exactly the Oceans’ Roar Li Qingshi just did!”

“He then grabbed a pipa, and played the Oceans’ Roar again!”

“Holy cow! Here is more! Fang Qiu went up to the Chinese zither and he played the f*cking Oceans’ Roar with it once more! He is about to shame Li Qingshi to death!”

“I’m also about to faint! Fang Qiu picked up the bamboo flute, played the same song! Ahhhh… I can’t believe my eyes. How can a man be so impressive! My heart can’t take it anymore. I’m going to die. Everyone, remember to go for Fang Qiu and avenge me!”

Even though they knew the post writer was just kidding, the viewers did not find it funny at all.

Because they were all stricken dumb with amazement after reading what the post accounted.

“How could it be possible!”

“How can Fang Qiu possibly play all of those musical instruments?”

“Considering that he already proved he can play guitar and hand flute, it’s already quite amazing when he showed that he plays erhu as well. But now, the post asserts that he does play all of those musical instruments!”

“Is it true?”

“Is the post writer fooling us?”

“But based on his account, it doesn’t look like a made-up story.”

But the viewers still found it hard to believe that Fang Qiu could really play so many musical instruments, for they thought it impossible!

“Fang Qiu held up the violin and asked Li Qingshi whether he wanted to see more. Li Qingshi did not reply. Fang Qiu warned him not to play dirty anymore, but to confront him openly! Then, he left with his roommates.”

“But Fang Qiu stopped at the donating desk. Let me interject a bit—this donation desk is the place we set to raise funds for Mo Yiqi, our schoolmate who got cancer. Seems that Fang Qiu is going to make a donation.”

“Li Qingshi went up to him!”

…